Galaxy astronomy is a hot topic, as many discoveries are appearing. We anticipate the results of the Event Horizon Telesope, which as early as December may reveal the first image of the Sag A supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Recently a second supermassive black hole was discovered in the vicinity of the Sag A black hole. Satellite galaxies near our Milky Way may point to our galaxy being an outlier in its type of galaxies. Fast Radio Bursts (FRB’s) continue to be detected begging questions as well as answers to the structure and cartography of our Milky Way Galaxy.

Although we live in the Milky Way Galaxy, we see only a portion of it as the band of starlight across the sky. Our speaker, Loren Anderson, Phd., Associate Professor of Physics & Astronomy West Virginia University , using primarily the Green Bank Telescope and the Aricebo Telescope and the Very Large Telescope Array ( Very Large Array, New Mexico ) studies the structure and properties of the Milky Way. He is locating the most massive star formation regions, “HII regions,” throughout the Milky Way disk, and will talk about progress toward a “complete” census of HII regions in our Galaxy, discussing ongoing work to compare the Milky Way with other similar galaxies. His work is part of HRDS: http://go.nrao.edu/hrds/ and WISE catalog: http://astro.phys.wvu.edu/wise/.

A break follows the lecture. AAAP’s October meeting resumes after break with a review of the current and upcoming club activities including and astronomical events. The meeting location is the Science Stage, Carnegie Science Center, 1 Allegheny Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15212. Take the front entrance of the Science Center under the portico. Look straight ahead for signs to the Science Stage, to the right. The lecture and meeting are free and open to the public.